This is a history of the early Greek settlers on Oceana before they split into various independent city-states, small kingdoms and confederations. This section ends at the time the first split in Greek colonies occurs.
The Greeks arrived in Oceana in 500 BCE. There were about a few score vessels and a couple of dozens of villages (people, buidings, crops and animals) that were transported to Oceana. All were from one region of Greece on Earth, although not the same city-state's territory. The villagers and ships were set down on the shore of what would become the new city of Selemo, re-named after the Goddess who was first to contact the Greeks. Like the other transdimensional groups, they quickly realized they were not on Earth. This was obvious by the sudden change in landscape, the different constellations, twin moons, and the story of the appearance of new gods to explain what had happened.
The Greeks, like the Egyptians and Elves, quickly converted to the new gods of Oceana. As such they started to develop magic fairly quickly. The Greeks are known as thinkers. They tend to think about magical theory, but not it's practical applications. major worshippers of god of knowledge.
The Greeks who were taken to Oceana came from a variety of social backgrounds within their villages and city-states. As such they were familiar with the political pressures within the society they came from. They were able to setup a democracy, although like Greek society on Earth, it was initially limited to free men. Selemos remained a democracy for many decades. While farmers were a main food source, fishing was important also. As such, the potential for leaving Selemos and starting over kept the city-state mostly democratic. It also helped that the city-state was very small, and complaints were easily heard.
Population Growth
Early farming yields on Earth were on the order of 5:1 to as low as 2:1, depending upon the weather and luck. That is 5 units would be produced for every unit of grain planted, of which one unit of the harvest had to be saved for next years planting. This was typical of the Mediterranean and Europe up through the early middle ages. This is the type of agriculture that was brought to Oceana by the Greek settlers. The Egyptians brought similar agricultural technology with them to Oceana. This relatively low crop yield kept population growth down over the next few hundred years.
Unlike the Egyptians, the Greeks were always seafarers. A significant amount of their food came from the sea. They not only used small craft for fishing, but they also explored the islands near them. They were faster to expand and colonize nearby islands. In addition, the islands that the Greeks landed on were of moderate size, unlike Egypt. The Greeks also had a bunch of islands that were very visable from their initial island.
The Greeks settled some new colonies fairly quickly. These colonies were all on nearby islands, such that it didn't take much effort to settle these islands. The islands had been used for many decades before as storm havens for fishing vessels and as fishing grounds. The relationship between these first colonies and the founding city of Selemo were, and remain peaceful. This was not true of future colonies though.
The real limit on early colonization was man power. It took a certain minimum number of families and people to make a new settlement work. With a very small starting base population it took time between to ensure sufficient population was availiable to found a new colony.
It wasn't until a few hundred years after the Greeks arrived on Oceana that they made a moderately concerted effort to explore Oceana. Many ships were sent out over a many decade period and found all of the now known existing other civilizations and tribes of monsters. The Greeks were really the explorers of Oceana, and were the ones to bring together most of the various races and civilizations.
Orcs were first enountered in 350 BCE while on a routine exploration mission to the west and north. The Orcs had been on Oceana for almost 150 years, and had already settled a couple of islands. The Orcs didn't have much in the way of maritime technology, their settlements were all close together.
The Greeks were natural seafarers and explorers. They were also prone to political arguement, political experimantation and to colonization. The Greeks were one of the primary colonizers on Oceana. Almost all the islands can trace their roots to Selemo. Most colonies, and colonies of colonies didn't keep the democracy of Selemos.
Some colonies were founded and run as an extension of an existing city-state. Such colonies were usually administered by a governor appointed by the owning city-state. Usually such governments were plagued by corruption. The colonies were a dumping ground for displaced peons, while the home island was given over to large slave run plantations. This is similar to what ancient Rome did, and is mentioned in various science fiction novels.
Many colonies were independent from the beginning.